Summary of third trial and sentencing

Pictured: All members of the 20-strong gang

Click here to see pictures of all 20 members convicted this year. Reporting restrictions were lifted last month.

16:17

Look back at our coverage

Take a look back at all our coverage of the 20 men convicted this year of grooming underage girls in Huddersfield

15:46

NSPCC statement

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has just provided a statement.

A spokesperson said: “The immense bravery of the survivors in this case has ensured that four more members of this predatory gang have been brought to justice. These depraved men groomed, exploited and then repeatedly sexually abused vulnerable girls.

“We all have a duty to be on the look-out for young people who are in danger of being lured by these vile criminal gangs, and to quickly contact the authorities so they can be protected from harm.

“Our NSPCC Helpline offers advice to adults who have concern about a child and can be contacted 24 hours a day on 0808 800 5000.”

15:22

Bashir jailed for 11 years

The judge has sentenced Bashir to 11 years’ imprisonment.

15:21

Bashir's offending

Bashir was convicted of rape and attempted rape, relating to the same victim.

15:20

Ahmed leaves the dock early

Ahmed has stood up and walked out of the dock, entering the cell area with a dock officer.

The defendants are expected to wait until the judge sends them all down together.

Ibrar jailed for three years

Ibrar's offending

The judge said said Girl O said she would met him regularly from a young age.

He said Ibrar used to work as a taxi driver for several firms in Huddersfield and ringleader Dhaliwal, who got a life sentence with a minimum of almost 18 years, was described as his ‘mate’.

The judge said Ibrar smashed Girl O’s face against the dashboard, stamped on her stomach and threw her phone onto a nearby factory roof.

He said: “You deceived her for the purposes of the trip. . .”

He said Ibrar drove her to Oldham and during the journey demanded that she perform oral sex upon him, ‘battering’ her when she refused.

He said Ibrar punched her to the face two or three times ‘in the presence and with the apparent complicity and support’ of Girl A.

Girl O said: “He just kept punching me and punching me every time I said no.”He said Ibrar abandoned her on the moors near Oldham in the middle of the night and she had to flag down a car while ‘covered in blood’.

Her mum described her face as being covered in bruises and being ‘a mess’ and said she lost her job as a result.

15:07

Ahmed jailed for five years

The judge has sentenced Ahmed to five years’ imprisonment.

15:07

Ahmed's offending

Ahmed was convicted of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and sexual assault.

The judge said there were three other men present while Girl A masturbated him in the car park of Shaf’s snooker club.

He said that one man filmed her while asking her for oral sex and another groped her under her bra.

He said she was ‘terrified’.

The sexual assault relates to Ahmed trying to force his hands into Girl M’s pants.

He said Ahmed was assessed as ‘medium risk of serious harm to children and the public’ and a ‘medium risk of re-offending’.

His partner, sister, younger brother wrote letters to the judge.

He said his son is aged eight.

Ahmed was told he was prepared to abuse girls for his own ‘sexual gratification’.

15:01

Akram jailed for 17 years

The judge has sentenced Akram to 17 years’ imprisonment.

15:01

Akram's offending

Akram was convicted of two counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, relating to Girl A and Girl M, and two counts of rape, which both relate to Girl M.

The judge said he must have had ‘some’ knowledge of the victims’ history of being groomed.

He said that Akram trafficked Girl A to a hotel in Bradford where she was raped by another man while she was unconscious.

She said: “[She] trusted you and you abused that trust. . .”

The judge said that he created an illusion that she was ‘part of the group’ when actually she was about to be exploited.

He said that Girl M’s mum said she has always been ‘very vulnerable to people taking advantage of her’, is ‘very easily played’ and even now is still ‘10 years behind’ where she should be.

The judge said that on one occasion after Girl M had been raped she woke up ‘screaming to go home’.

She said: “I felt embarrassed, I felt dirty that someone’s done that without me saying that they can do that to me. . . I thought I was wrong because I was so drunk.”

The court also heard how, when Akram crashed his car into the wall of a mosque, he ran away and left two of the victims at the scene of the accident when they ‘clearly were in need of medical attention’.

The judge said he had shown a ‘complete disregard for the safety of the girls’.

14:50

First of four defendants being sentenced now

The judge is moving on to sentencing now, starting with Akram.

14:49

Ibrar not subject to sexual offenders' notification requirement

The judge said Ibrar will not be subject to a sexual offenders’ notification requirement as trafficking for sexual exploitation does not satisfy the requirements.

14:47

Sexual harm prevention orders

The judge made each of the defendants subject to SHPOs.

The indefinite orders prevent the defendants contacting their victims directly or indirectly.

14:47

Victim personal statements

The judge confirmed that he read the victims’ personal statements, which made ‘harrowing reading’.

14:40

Girl A's mum

The judge has also summarised the struggle of Girl A’s parents. Read more about that here.

14:39

Victim's mum wrote to Prime Minister

The judge said Girl O’s mum said: “[She] continued to go missing. I would be calling the police two to three times a week. I would lay awake at night and wonder if she was dead . . .

“She would always come home looking like she was on drugs . . . She didn’t care about anything.”

She also described writing to social services and speaking to them directly and ‘even wrote to the Prime Minister’.

14:35

Judge summarises the case

Judge Simon Phillips QC is summarising the case - his remarks so far are very similar to those we have heard from the former presiding judge in the first two trials.

He has started with the victims’ stories.

He said they were chosen for their vulnerability and often ‘rendered senseless’.

Girl A

We have heard these details before as she featured in all three trials - read her story here. The judge said Girl A was a ‘happy child who got on well with family and friends’ and that ‘changed’ when she became under the influence of older Asian men.

He said she felt ‘dirty’ the first time she performed oral sex.

He said she may have presented to some as being a ‘willing participant’ but the reality was she was ‘extremely vulnerable and utterly corrupted’.

He said the first time she was raped she felt ‘dirty, annoyed mad scared’.

He said she had an abortion and her mum described her as ‘off the rails’ at that time.

She said: “You get branded as used goods then you’re too old.”

He said she felt ‘blessed’ when she got pregnant because the men would leave her alone and being sent to prison was a ‘watershed event’ in her life.

Girl M

She also gave evidence in all three trials.

The judge said Girl M had been in car crashes and ‘some really bad states’, including trying to kill herself many times.

She said it ‘basically ruined most of my life’.

She said: “I was angry, I wasn’t me, I didn’t want to do anything, I was high all the time. I would go out at 11 in the day and not come back until 11 the next day. Drinking. We was just disgusting . . .I risked my life every time I went out, I was just a mess.”

Girl O

She gave evidence in the first and third trial and the judge said all the offending against her ‘robbed her of her youth’.

She said: “It got to the point where they were saying that they knew they were just violating me.”

14:31

Sentencing resumes

The judge is back in the courtroom and the defendants are back in the dock.

12:27

Sentencing adjourned until this afternoon

The sentencing has been adjourned until 2pm today.

The judge has to consider all the mitigation he has heard and may need to prepare or change his sentencing remarks.

12:26

Bashir’s general mitigation

Miss Khan said he has no previous convictions for sexual offending and may have lacked emotional maturity at the time of the offending.

She said the dad-of-two’s girlfriend is expecting their third child.

She said the children are at a loss as to where their father is.

She said his mother is elderly and in poor health.

She said the ‘wider impact of media reports is of course felt by the family’ and is a concern for him too.

She said his ‘supportive’ girlfriend gave evidence in the trial and said there were no incidents of violence between the two of them.

Miss Khan added that Bashir was ‘well thought of in the community’.

12:24

Bashir’s mitigation in relation to his victim

Asif Bashir

Bashir is being sentenced for attempted oral rape in a car and repeated rapes. Those offences relate to one victim who had been abused by many other members of the gang.

His barrister Aisha Khan said the victim was not underage at the time of the offending.

She said he had not been present at any parties with the victim and the other defendants.She said he should not be sentenced in the wider grooming context - which would be an aggravating feature.

12:02

Ibrar’s mitigation in general

Mr Harounoff said his client has ‘extremely low intelligence’ which is less than 99.7% of the population, a medical condition and his mother is his carer.

His mother said her son, who has two brothers, is unable to live as freely as them due to the medical condition and he wishes he wasn’t born.

The barrister said he had ‘significantly’ high scores on anxiety and depression tests.

He said he was concerned because two of the jurors were Muslim and believes he has been targeted by the media.

11:59

Defence for Ibrar in relation to Girl O

Mohammed Imran Ibrar

Ibrar is being sentenced for a single incident against Girl O in June 2009 which resulted in convictions for trafficking and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Girl A was also in the car at the time.

His barrister David Harounoff said his client has learning difficulties. He said that eight photos were taken of Girl O three days after the incident, inviting the judge to look at them.

The judge reminded them that he seen them during the trial and he recalls the evidence the jury heard.

Mr Harounoff said: “There is no evidence consistent with her nose being pounded in the way she described.”

He said that Girl O told the BBC that she was ‘essentially disfigured for life’.

He described the reporting as unfair and said it has caused the defendant to be suicidal.

He invited the judge to sentence him based on Girl A’s contradictory account of the incident.

11:39

General mitigation for Ahmed

Miss Lambert said that Ahmed has a partner and his two sisters who work in the medical profession.

She said his former partner passed away from cancer ‘many years ago’, his nephew took his own life, his son is disabled and Ahmed suffers from depression.

11:38

Defence for Ahmed

Niaz Ahmed

Ahmed has been convicted of inciting Girl A to masturbate him in the car park of the now-defunct Shaf’s snooker club on Manchester Road and sexually assaulting Girl M by attempting to force his hand into her pants.

His barrister Elizabeth Lambert said his offending was ‘highly limited’ and can be distinguished from the likes of ringleader Amere Singh Dhaliwal.

She said no violence was used, there was limited interaction with both victims and he did not traffic them.

She said there was also no evidence of intimidation of the victims’ families.

She accepted the prosecution’s categorisation of the masturbation, which was aggravated by ejaculation, as 2A.

She disagreed with the prosecution’s categorisation of the sexual assault and submitted that it’s only category 3A.

Reasons she provided included that the victim was not underage and there was no touching of genitals.